Incorruptible I: Lift the Veil
by ArchReaperN7
Summary: Humanity is at war, and it is losing. An alliance of aliens with a firm religious belief known as the Covenant Empire have launched a genocidal campaign to wipe out the human race in the name of their gods. Escaping the Fall of Reach, they arrive in orbit over a mysterious ring world called Halo. Little do the crew know however, that its secrets could change the course of the war..


_The year is 2552. For twenty-seven years, humanity has been fighting a seemingly unwinnable war with an alien alliance known as the Covenant, hellbent on the destruction of the human race. One by one, entire colonies are torched, glassed and annihilated. Their forces are either destroyed or crippled. It is a war humanity is losing._

 _But now humanity is at the forefront. At the apex of what historians call the Human-Covenant War, a new discovery was made. One that only changed the course of history and the war itself, but unlocked an entirely new set of horrors for both humanity and the Covenant._

 _And it would all take place over a ring world called_ _ **Halo.**_

 **CORTANA**

 _August 30, 2552._

 _1834 hours._

 _UNSC Pillar of Autumn, Autumn-Class Heavy Cruiser, Rapidly Exiting Reach Orbit, Epsilon Eridani System._

 _Human-Covenant War, Fall of Reach._

With a slight ghost of a smile, Cortana watched the remote controlled Longsword-Class interceptor glide right under the Covenant vessel's shields, slamming into the belly of the vessel. She had to break away from her amusement to run a quick maneveur to the right, just barely dodging the rapid assault of the ship's pulse lasers, purple streaks of light grazing along the _Autumn'_ s side, but only managing to break off pieces of armor plating, sizzling at the hull but dealing no real damage.

In space, sound didn't travel. The distance between objects seemed closer than it actually was, and more often than not, what appeared to be only a few meters away was actually several hundred kilometers. Yet, sound did not travel that far. So you didn't hear it.

Which is why Cortana always found the image of a vessel being torn to shreds and yet be so quiet very odd. Of course, all her runtimes and archive information explained perfectly why it was so, but her more human aspects, those of her creator, couldn't help but be intrigued by it. In this case, the muted image of a Longsword, armed with a Shiva nuclear payload, slamming into the hull of a Covenant supercruiser, exploding and delivering a catastrophic blast of light so bright it would melt the retinas off a human if they looked at it, reducing two thirds of the ship to atomized particles, was very odd indeed. Such a large explosion, so thunderous, yet...so peaceful.

The _Pillar of Autumn_ glided by, its job complete, albeit heavily damaged from a grazing shot from an energy projector. Pieces of metal hung off the side, while others had burned and sizzled away, black scorch marks the only evidence left that they were even there to begin with. But as she watched, she felt satisfied at watching the remains of the once so mighty supercruiser float away effortlessly in the weightlessness of space. The supercruiser, a flagship within the Covenant Fleet of Particular Justice, had been so far undefeated during the course of the battle; light battleships and even the super MAC platforms had done nothing to it.

She had watched, as the _Autumn_ lifted from Reach's surface, as the UNSC threw everything it had at the behemoth. It was three times the size of a Marathon-Class Heavy Cruiser, with an approximate length of 3470 meters. Its shields had shrugged off the detonation of a nuclear mine (an explosion that would have crippled three Covenant battlecruisers), and barely even acknowledged the impacts of three MAC rounds, or even five hundred archer missiles. And because of its 'sniper' like nature, it was able to cleanly pick off the UNSC's most powerful weapon; its Super MAC gun platforms.

But Cortana, being the Smart AI that she was, along with Captain Keyes, the commander of the _Autumn_ , knew they had to get past that supercruiser to escape, and quickly drew up a plan; riddle its shields with archer missiles until its shields drop, then deploy a Longsword interceptor outfitted with a Shiva-Class nuclear warhead and have it slam into the vessel. And like clockwork, the idea worked. And now the _Autumn_ simply shot through its debris, having destroyed a ship that had crippled far more powerful vessels, having destroyed the supercruiser quite easily, a ship Cortana, after scouring the battle net, had identified as the _Silent Prayer_.

But even as Cortana looked back, she knew that amusement was but short-lived. They had merely destroyed one ship out of thousands. And the only reason they had been so desperate to destroy it was because they needed to escape the scene of a lost battle.

Reach: once a proud and formidable beacon of the might of the United Nations Space Command, known simply as the UNSC. A paragon of human expansion, and a fortress world in its own right. Out of all the colonies, Reach had had the most formidable defenses, the greatest cities, the most Earth-like climate. It was home to some of the only Super MAC gun platforms in existence, and served as a defensive line between any invader and Earth itself. A beautiful planet with its own gigantic fleet. Reach had been seen as impregnable.

And now she watched it glowing bright orange as Covenant ships descended, swooping past the ruins of the Epsilon Eridani Fleet, the debris of the Super MACs, and lay waste to the surface. Legions of Covenant troops, millions of them, landed and likely overwhelmed whatever ground defenses were left. Entire cities were glassed; vaporized and melted into nothing, while the Covenant in orbit simply bombarded the planet from the safety of the atmosphere. The atmosphere burnt and withered away from the constant plasma disintegration, and swarms of tiny forms swam over the planet, ranging from Type-26 Ground Support Aircraft to DX-Class 'Spirit' dropships. Every individual UNSC defense was overrun, destroyed and its survivors butchered.

The pride of the UNSC, gone, in days. And while they had enacted their own toll on the Covenant, it had only stemmed the tide, and now the _Autumn_ would be forced to escape.

"Cortana," a voice spoke her name. She recognized it as the one that belonged to the commanding officer of the _Pillar of Autumn,_ Captain Jacob Keyes. He was the one who, only minutes before, had taken her core aboard the _Autumn_ , a last minute escape from the Covenant armada.

The blankness of her silence lifted as she summoned herself to the holo pedestal beside the tactical loadout on the bridge, her blue form popping up beside the captain as he stood on the bridge. She could immediately make out his features; his crisp white officer's uniform with his last name pinned to his right breast, his greying brown hair and wrinked complexion. His large nose, but medium-sized lips. His hazel eyes and firm jawline. He was everything a competent military commander should like, or how kids would imagine they look.

He stood there, hands clasped behind his back as he observed the tactical screen, a look of sorrow on his features as he left Reach behind. Crewmen ran frantically around the spacious bridge, while he stood as rigid as a pillar, his pipe hanging from his mouth, a testament to his ancestry.

"Yes sir?" Cortana replied crisply and according to station. Her arrangement as the _Autumn's_ AI was only recent, but it didn't mean she got to run roughshot of the command structure. Keyes was her captain now, and she reported as was expected of her.

He didn't seem to acknowledge her for a moment, looking forlornly at the screen one last time before switching it off, a map of the system appearing as multiple planets blinked an angry shade of red. Reach and Tribute glowed the brighest as they suffered from direct Covenant attack, while Beta Gabriel, Circumstance, Tantalus and other planets glowed steadily, where minor Covenant patrols blockaded them until the main force could come to glass them.

"Initiate the Cole Protocol," the captain took in a deep breath, removing his pipe and placing it on the console infront of him as he scratched his temple, looking more defeated than ever, "Article 1, Subsection 4. Just...get us out of here. We have our orders, and I'm going to follow them. We have to go."

Cortana was familiar with it. The Cole Protocol, also known as the United Nations Space Command Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1 in much more lengthy terms, was a command enacted by Admiral Preston Cole, with numerous commands and orders to carry out that all lead to the same thing: do not let the Covenant discover the location of Earth. There were different subsections of the two articles that dealt with this, but the one Keyes was mentioning was clear; initiate a random slipspace destination that led well away from Earth in case of pursuit.

And she did it in a heartbeat. Within a second, the coordinates for a system roughly a couple of weeks away were punched in, and sent to the navigator, Ensign William Lovell. But even as she did this, new data was popping up onto her screen; new data...incoming targets.

"Captain," Cortana exclaimed in warning, "I am detecting numerous Covenant vessels breaking off the attack on Reach and they are moving to engage us."

Captain Keyes looked at her with seemingly no sign of being fazed, "Composition? Are they a threat?"

She nodded, "There's enough to easily overwhelm us. Numerous CCS-Class battlegroups...at least four CAS-Class Assault Carriers...at least one DDS-Class Heavy Carrier. Thousands of Seraph interceptors, as well as hundreds of..." The information was overwhelming. Spearheading the formation was the DDS-Class Heavy Carrier _Ascendant Justice,_ followed two ships of the UCI-Class destroyers, the _Undiminished Entelechy_ and _Purity of Spirit._ One by one, the different ships began to drop their attack and pursue the _Autumn_ , moving with the frightening speed most Covenant ships possessed closing the distance rapidly and with ease, and their names just poured in.

The CCS-Class battlecruisers _Truth and Reconciliation_ and _Sacred Promise_ and others beyond count. The CPV-Class destroyers _Esteem, Reverence, Splendor, Exalted Beauty, Divinity_ and others. The CAR-class frigates _Penance_ and _Contrition._ An...agricultural support ship called _Infinite Succor_? The assault carriers _Devotion, Rapture, Abdication of Sin, Commitment and Patience_ and even the flagship of the fleet itself, _Seeker of Truth._ It was with that last ship that Cortana realized just what was being brought down on them.

The entire Fleet of Particular Justice was pursuing them. _**The whole fleet.**_

Hundreds of ships, ranging classification, all chasing after one ship. _Why?_

They were about to find out.

"Sir, those ships are closing in fast," Cortana declared, "They will be in weapons range in sixty seconds."

Keyes waited no longer, "Ensign Lovell, punch those coordinates in! Get us out of here!"

Cortana watched it all unfold. In a flash, the _Autumn_ accellerated past light speed and a gate of purple light erupted infront of them. The ship passed effortlessly through it, entering slipspace as the portal closed behind them.

And with it, taking them towards history.

 _ **Not quite what you expected when I returned, was it?**_

 _ **I'll be honest with you; I've been through alot of shit, and not all of it is laid out on the table. You people have probably been wondering what the hell happened to me. Well, to say the least, I've been on a very long period of hiatus. The recent chapter for Holocaust got corrupted while I was halfway into it, and that sort of sealed the deal. I've tried rewriting it since, and I got nowhere, so I eventually gave up and initiated a hiatus, hoping that I would return soon with the same energy I had before.**_

 _ **Alas, it has not happened yet. Hopefully it will soon, because I have no intention to leave FABT unfinished. But in the wake of my hiatus and with Halo 5 Guardians coming out in October, I took a second shot at writing my own novelization of my favourite series of all time: Halo. And so here I present the Incorruptible series, starting with my first installment: Lift the Veil. It'll be a novelization of Halo Combat Evolved, but quite different: it'll be explored at from different character perspectives, and as you've probably seen, it'll be done from a George RR Martin sort of style; chapters are named after the character who's POV is represented. Who's POVs I do are up to you, but so far, I hope to cover the following characters:**_

 _ **Master Chief, Cortana, Captain Keyes, Johnson and Thel'Vadamee. If you want other character POVs done, just tell me, and I'll work them in where I can.**_

 _ **Yes, this is another major project. But I'm taking advantage of the time given to birth a new seed; and who knows? Maybe my inspiration for Holocaust will come back and I'll continue. But for now, I must let it rest, if only for a while.**_

 _ **I hope you guys enjoy this just as much as you did Holocaust. :)**_

 _ **Keelah Se'lai, troopers!**_


End file.
